jesus. bangkok. neighbors. us.

During our last morning in Chiang Mai, Iven and I shared a delicious breakfast of eggs benedict and a potato bowl at a little diner run by an ex-patriot man from the West Coast of America, who was also our waiter. After taking our order he stayed to chat with us a bit and ask if we were tourists or working in Thailand. Iven piped up with his standard “We are actually ‘scary Christian missionaries'” (sometimes a surprisingly disarming line to use among the ex-pat community here in Thailand) and I added, “But we are friendly ones!” His demeanor immediately stiffened and not long after that he disengaged, leaving us with our breakfast. The food was great, but we were tempted to feel a little sheepish in response to the clear disapproval shown towards our chosen careers and purpose for living here in Thailand. A little later a (presumably Thai) waiter came to take away our dishes. We thanked him in Thai and got the common return of a big smile and a “you speak Thai!” exclamation, followed by asking what we do. We explained in Thai that we are Christian volunteers and the smile grew even broader. “Are you missionaries? Oh!” The young man left our dishes and rushed into the kitchen, coming back with a Chinese Bible and a notebook, explaining excitedly that he has been a Christian for a year and is copying the book of Matthew into his book in Chinese (Chinese is his mother tongue, though he lives here in Thailand). Grinning broadly he explained, “I used to believe in the Chinese gods, but now I know that Jesus is the only true God.” It was so humbling to see the joy in this young man, and his excitement to connect with us as fellow Believers. Leaving the restaurant we were really struck at God’s goodness to us – to witness the simplicity of this young man’s faith, and his eagerness to share about it was such a gift.

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